Graphics user interface operating systems, such as Microsoft Corporation's WINDOWS.TM. and related products, have greatly improved the ease with which tasks can be accomplished on the computer. Instead of requiring the user to remember the file name and path of an application program in order to execute it, as has conventionally been the case in text-based operating systems, in a graphic operating system, the user need only activate an icon that represents the application. The graphic icon is activated by positioning a cursor over it and then "double-clicking" on the icon with a pointing device that is used to control the cursor. Since the properties assigned to the graphic icon link it to the executable file and specify its complete directory path, there is no need for the user to recall that information after the icon properties are initially setup to run the program.
Typically, a user will arrange a number of frequently used applications in different groups based on subject matter or common task relationship. Within a group, each application is represented by a graphic icon. In certain desktop shells, the graphic icons representing different applications are arranged in panels of buttons that can be configured in different rectangular shapes by dragging on a side of the panel with the cursor using the pointing device.
Graphic icons are also commonly used within applications to represent different tools, controls, commands, macros, or procedures. For example, Microsoft Corporation's Word for Windows includes several toolbars, each comprising a plurality of different graphic icon buttons that can be selected to carry out various tasks in the word processing system. The user can customize a toolbar or build a new one by adding or deleting graphic icon buttons. The appearance of any graphic icon button can be altered by editing the bitmap that appears on it in an icon editing utility. Toolbars are thus well known in the art and frequently used because they enable a user to immediately access tools within applications, just as the panels of graphic icon buttons that represent different applications or programs enable those applications to be immediately selected on the desktop of the graphic user interface.
However, there is a limitation on the number of graphic icons that can be available to the user. Each time that a toolbar is selected by the user to be left open on the computer screen, the space occupied by the toolbar becomes unavailable for display of other information or data. In a word processing system, the user may find that having more than two or three toolbars open at a time reduces the display screen area for the document being created or edited to an unacceptable extent. The loss of display screen area to toolbars is particularly noticeable if the user is running the display at a relatively low resolution, e.g., 640.times.480 pixels. Although the toolbars can be docked to one side or to the top or bottom of the screen so that they are not floating over and obscuring a document, the area that they occupy is not available to display the text of the document. Consequently, the user is forced to choose between the convenience of readily accessing tools and applications by simply activating the corresponding graphic icons on the toolbars, or of having more display screen area available for text and other data. It would clearly be preferable to provide an alternative approach that enables the user to quickly access multiple toolbars without unduly limiting the screen area that is available for displaying text and graphics. Any such solution should allow the user the same kinds of flexibility in configuring toolbars and in positioning them at different points in the display as is presently available. The prior art does not appear to provide an acceptable solution to this problem.